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When you find yourself in a situation such as Dream and Techno have found themselves, your life has to be carefully planned.
Zombie apocalypses are easy for absolutely nobody, but if you find yourself travelling with a partner, they get even harder. A partner means another person to account for, someone to split things with and yet another body to ensure safety for.
It means learning new forms of defense, finding better safehouses, getting more food. It means being more careful, more alert, more defensive.
It also means that the general state of the world is a lot easier to deal with. When there’s someone else there, it takes the edge off. After all, you can’t be isolated if you’re not in isolation, and it’s nice to have someone at your back.
But no matter how bad or good someone might see it, there have to be rules - and in Techno and Dream’s case, those rules are strict. They always have to watch each other’s backs, and after every encounter with an undead, they have to go over each other for rips in their clothing or anything that appears to be a bite mark. Food enough for a few days is kept in each of their packs, and they never allow themselves to have only one of something essential.
There are safehouses to meet at after being split up, messages to leave each other if lost, strategies for fighting and walking and eating and cooking and sleeping. Every single thing they do is checked by the other, thoroughly and carefully.
You can’t lie about where you were, what you were doing, what happened, when you’re in a world like this. It might mean life or death to slip up for a moment, to say you’ve gone South instead of East, to say you were taking a piss when you were eating a sausage.
But the biggest rule of all, the most important one, is their rule about bite marks and open wounds.
Bites aren’t uncommon when you live in the wild. Mosquitoes, wild dogs and cats, spiders, anything else you might be able to think of - those are all important bites, and sometimes they’re things to be careful about, but they’re not why the rule was made.
If you are bitten by a zombie, you will Become in twelve to forty-eight hours depending on a list of reasons. Age, weight, height, physical health. The better shape you are, the longer it takes for the infection to overcome you. For Techno or Dream, it’d probably take about 40 hours or so for them to be entirely consumed by the virus.
Open wounds are a little different. Open wounds mean exposed skin, which is obviously a danger to biting, but it’s not the bites that make humans fear in that situation. The true danger comes from the tears zombies begin to cry once they’ve fallen deeper into the infection.
The tears were made of pure infection. About a month or two after a zombie Became, the infection took over them so entirely that it began to leak out of them. It was almost terrifying, but it always made Techno more sad than disgusted or scared. The idea that the infection made them cry with every step they took, it just made his gut twist into knots.
But no matter how sad it looked, if it got under your skin, in your mouth, anywhere it might enter your body, it worked the same as a bite. Techno had seen less people who had Become through tears, so he wasn’t quite sure the specifics of timing, but he knew it operated roughly on the same scale. 12-48 hours after it entered your body before you Became.
At first, there was agreement over the specifics of the rule. Both Techno and Dream had wanted the immediate reaction to be a few hours to say goodbye and then whoever hadn’t been infected would kill the other.
As their relationship developed and they got closer, both of them became iffy on the idea of killing each other. Both of them knew it was a bad idea to question something as important as that, so neither of them spoke up with their protests, but the idea of it still rested uneasy on their shoulders.
It’s also why Techno didn’t say anything when he saw the tooth marks carved into Dream’s shoulder.
They were small, not very prominent. If he looked it out of the corner of his eyes, he could almost convince himself they came from fingernails instead of teeth, but the second he looked closer, he knew exactly what it was.
And when Dream spoke up, whispered a quiet “Tech?” Techno became very aware of two things.
The first thing - Techno was going to have to kill Dream. He was going to have to grab the old gun from the basement and brush the dust off and load it with the first bullets it had seen in years.
He was going to have to press the cold ring of metal at the end of the gun to Dream’s forehead and pull the trigger, and then he was going to have to do it in the heart to ensure that both the brain and the heart were ruined before the protections of an undead overwhelmed them and they could no longer be killed with anything but fire.
Techno was going to have to use a gun to kill his boyfriend before he became a flesh-eating monster that would come for Techno and eat him alive. And then he would join the hoards of once-people that wandered the streets of the world, shambling along in clouds of slowly decaying flesh, eyes watering as he shed tears full of the green dust that everyone knew was made from whatever bullshit that made up the infection.
(Once, there was research, the beginning of a cure, but that had been stopped once close proximity to the infection and dealing with it hands on for so long with open skin had caused the people testing it to become infected. Most of the general public still didn’t know what the virus was or how it spread when the scientists had all lost themselves - now most of the general public did, but that was because most of them now had to learn exact rules for keeping themselves safe.)
The second thing Techno very suddenly knew was that Dream already knew he had been bitten. Dream was absolutely aware of the teeth-marks on his shoulder, and he was either planning to deal with it on his own so that Techno wouldn’t have to, or he was going to let Techno find them and bring it up.
Techno couldn’t help the sharp pang of anxiety that rose at the idea. What if Dream didn’t have a plan? What if he was going to ignore it until he was a shambling monster with no mind? What if he wanted to allow himself to get that far - if he wasn’t going to tell Techno so that Techno wouldn’t know?
The idea was cut off quickly, though. Dream had willingly taken off his shirt and reminded Techno about checking each other over after each battle. Dream had wanted this to be discovered as soon as possible.
(Dream wanted Techno to kill him.)
“Techno?” Dream asked again, word breaking through the flood of thoughts.
Techno hesitated, unsure how to respond. When he opened his mouth again, the only thing that came out was Dream’s name, cracked and broken as it fell from Techno’s lips. He froze up at his own voice before reaching out a hand and gently smoothing his fingers over the bite mark.
Dream tensed under Techno’s touch before going limp, head dropping back against Techno’s chest. The silent acknowledgement passed over both of them and they sat there for a moment, silent and unmoving. Neither of them wanted to break the quiet and neither of them wanted to stay quiet.
After a long, long pause, Techno slowly began to wrap the wound. He wound the bandage around Dream’s arm, poking the smaller man so that he would lift it and give Techno better access to finish bandaging it.
When he finished with the bite mark, Techno moved on to bandaging the rest of the wounds that dotted Dream’s body. The bite had been received in a heavy fight against a cloud of undead, one that had left both Dream and Techno tired and aching and bruised on half of their available skin.
The bandaging went slowly, but it felt like it took seconds. Techno’s mind was stuck in a state between racing and absolutely empty. Half of him wanted to scream, cry, react in some way, and the other half of him wanted to keep up the uncomfortable silence that had stayed between the partners.
When Techno did finish, Dream turned to face him. The silence lasted for a few more moments before Dream gave a fake smile and spoke, false cheer infused into his tone. “Do you want me to do you next? I could braid your hair or something too, just so we can wind down a little.”
Techno forced a matching smile onto his face. “That sounds nice, yeah. I can go grab a comb and a couple hair ties first?”
Dream nodded. “We’ll probably need a couple more bandages, can you get those too?”
Techno gave a thumbs up and fled the room, trying his hardest not to choke on the knot rising in his throat. Something like tears or vomit was trying to pry its way out of his mouth, so he clamped his teeth down on his lower lip and went to grab a box of their dwindling supply of bandages.
They’d finish much slower now that Dream was going, Techno’s mind murmured, and he bit harder into his lip. The iron taste of blood dripped into his dry mouth, and he made himself release his teeth from where they were dug in.
He pushed further thoughts from his mind and grabbed what he needed from the room, going back to the dusty couch and taking a seat. Dream was still off in their bedroom, likely digging around in the drawer to find the things he needed for Techno’s hair.
It took longer than it should have for Dream to reenter the room, and when he finally did, his eyes were ringed with red. Techno ignored the way Dream’s eyelashes clumped together and got off the couch, standing up and handing Dream the bandages and the little bottle of disinfectant they used for any wounds that could get infected or might stay open for longer than was safe.
“Take off your shirt, please,” Dream requested, and Techno followed quickly, dropping his t-shirt onto the couch.
Dream ran gentle hands over his chest, slowly tracing his muscles in something that felt more like he was trying to commit Techno to memory than examine him. Fingers ran through crevices in Techno’s muscles, drifted over Techno’s neck and shoulders until he was turning Techno around and slowly searching his back, letting his fingertips poke lightly at a few bruises.
Techno couldn’t help his hands from twitching as Dream moved to examine his legs, the larger man wholeheartedly consumed by the idea that this would be the last time they’d truly get to see each other.
All of a sudden, Techno wanted to do his study of Dream again, wanted to touch each and every part of him. Wanted to run his fingers through Dream’s hair and know that every part of him was solid and real and there, even if that would only be true for another few hours.
Dream was done all too quickly, standing up straight and offering an awkward nod in return. This time, he couldn’t hide the tears that were threatening to pour out of his eyes. “Y - you’re all set,” he ground out. “Want me to do your hair?”
Techno wanted to reach out, he really did. He wanted to pull Dream against his chest and kiss him breathless and promise him that everything would be okay - but that wouldn’t be true. It wasn’t true now, and it wouldn’t be true that night, when Techno drove a bullet through his beloved’s head.
Techno was never a good liar anyways.
So instead, he sat down on the ground and let Dream sit behind him, slowly combing through pink locks. It tugged at his scalp just a little, making him wince once or twice, but Dream’s fingers pressing into his hair and soothing the hurt right after felt amazing.
Eventually, Dream was going through knots that weren’t there, ending up with nothing but smooth hair that was starting to flatten even further under his constant brushing. Techno didn’t stop him, though, and eventually he could feel each strand being tucked into a careful braid, could feel it as Dream smoothed out any friz that might have stuck out.
Dream braided Techno’s hair with practiced fingers, gentle and sweet in contrast to the previous pull of the comb. It felt nice to have Dream’s fingers through his hair, even though it was tinged darker with the idea that this was the last time he’d ever get to feel this.
It took a while, but Dream gained a little rhythm, carefully slotting lock after lock together into their right spaces until he had nothing but the little fluffier bits at the end of Techno’s hair. He used one of the hair pieces, tying it all together perfectly.
“Time for rest?” Dream suggested.
“Mm,” Techno agreed, voice cracking slightly. He was reminded once again of why he hadn’t been talking much - he didn’t want Dream to hear him sound weak. Dream deserved strength right now, deserved Techno to be strong for him.
Dream didn’t seem to mind - he didn’t react much at all, really, just slid his hand into Techno’s and led them to their bedroom. Techno stood in the doorway for a moment after Dream released him, all sense of rhythm broken. He began to move again when Dream sat down on the bed, walking to the dresser and slipping on some more comfortable clothes.
It felt like a poisoned action to lay down next to Dream. It was so common, something he did every single night, curling up in bed with Dream in his arms - but it felt sick now, wrong and twisted. It left a bad taste in his mouth.
But he let himself wrap around Dream. He let himself get comfortable, let himself situate himself until he was lying back on the pillows and Dream’s breath began to even out. He let himself lay there, wide awake and staring at the ceiling, until his eyes slipped shut.
In the dead of night, a low voice whispers a "please," and the sound of a gun shatters the quiet.
One gunshot, two gunshots, and the house is silent.